In this webinar, we heard from Justin Bryant, Company Secretary at Community Housing about their journey from paper-based governance reviews to a more connected, data-led approach, and how using Convene Assure helped them get there.
Previously, board effectiveness reviews and skills assessments were handled completely separately. Everything was paper-based, subjective, and time-consuming. By the time results were collected, there was little capacity left to do anything meaningful with them. The process felt clunky and disconnected, and it was difficult to get a true sense of how the board was performing or where future gaps might appear.
That all changed when they adopted Convene Assure, the assurance and evaluation module built to sit seamlessly alongside their existing Convene Board Portal. Instead of juggling spreadsheets and reports, they could now carry out governance reviews and build a full skills matrix in the same space where they already managed their board meetings. The results were instant, and the experience was collaborative. With support from Fiona and the Convene team, they were able to add external perspective to their assessments and use the platform’s action planning feature to turn findings into concrete next steps.
One of the most valuable tools has been the Skills Matrix Map, which gives a clear, visual picture of each board member’s experience, qualifications, and skills. This has helped transform annual appraisals and one-to-ones, encouraging deeper conversations about expertise and diversity of thought around the table. It has also supported succession planning by mapping skills against their corporate plan, and even helped tailor induction materials and board packs to suit individual learning styles. Board members can update their own skills in real time and export their profile for use elsewhere, something that simply wasn’t possible before.
Alongside this, the Governance Review Heatmap has made assurance much easier to understand at a glance. It shows how confident the board feels across four core modules and allows them to drill down into submodules and individual questions. The heatmap also highlights where assurance is weaker and automatically creates recommended actions. These actions can then be tracked within Convene, so progress isn’t lost once the review is over.
The difference has been striking. The team described getting far more nuanced data than the old paper process ever produced, with significant time and cost savings and a huge drop in administrative burden. The platform has also helped with practical planning: they now use it to build subcommittees, test how new applicants might fit with the existing board, and keep their skills data live rather than treating it as a one-off exercise.
Ultimately, Community Housing called the experience “transformative”. Moving from static documents to live, connected data has allowed them to focus on decisions rather than admin. As they put it: “Any product that can make better use of data and move us towards contemporary governance is something we want to be part of.”
We also discussed what’s coming next! AI functionality is coming soon to Convene Assure, helping boards quickly scan minutes and papers to see if assurance is being delivered on key issues. More will be shared in our upcoming October webinar: Using AI to Improve Governance, Minimise Risk & Ensure Compliance.
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